Kate Seabrook & Paul Sullivan profile one of their favourite European cities…
An Introductory Walking Route
One of the most pleasant ways to introduce yourself to the Hungarian capital—just eleven hours away on a direct daytime train (with dining car) from Berlin, or a slightly longer overnight journey—is to walk a loop along both sides of the Danube. You could start at the striking Hungarian parliament building (Országház) on the Pest side, follow the river promenade southwards past the poignant Shoes on the Danube memorial, and to the peripheries of the city centre.
You might pop in for a look and a bite at the covered market hall (Nagy Vásárcsarnok) before crossing Liberty Bridge to the Buda side, where you’d stroll past the historic Gellért Thermal Bath and enter the Gellérthegy Jubileumi park, where you could explore the Gellért Hill Cave—a grotto chapel in a hillside cave network, formerly used as a monastery and a World War 2 field hospital—and the Liberty Statue, erected in 1947 to commemorate those who lost their lives fighting for the country. There are playgrounds and quiet areas here for families too.
Keep going through the park for classic views across the river to the Pest side, perhaps stopping off at the Garden of Philosophers before either heading down to street level to Várnegyed (the Castle Quarter), which contains Buda Castle, the Royal Palace and Hungarian National Gallery with its collection of Hungarian masters, or continue on to the Citadel and Fisherman’s Bastion. A little farther on you’ll find Batthyány tér subway station where you can snap a perfect photo of the parliament building from across the water, which is particularly stunning during blue hour.
Armed with a general overview of the city and a phone or camera full of scenic snaps, you’ll be ready to explore the myriad charms of the historic centre and surrounding neighbourhoods….
Museums & Galleries
Budapest has plenty of big-hitter sights. Among the best for history buffs are the striking Parliament Building; the Hungarian National History Museum, the biggest in the country with a collection that traces the nation’s history from the Stone Age and Roman and Ottoman eras through to communism; and for those interested in the city’s darker history, the House of Terror, former HQ of both the fascist Arrow Cross Party and the Hungarian version of the communist secret police. The Holocaust Memorial Center is as poignant as you might expect, with a (modern) museum detailing the destruction of Hungarian Jews, as well as a synagogue and memorial garden.
Art lovers have an array of choices, too. The Hungarian National Gallery, set inside the Royal Palace, is the place to discover Hungarian artists such as József Rippl-Rónai, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, Lajos Tihany and Mihály Munkácsy; the Museum of Fine Arts, located close to Heroes’ Square, has five floors of works from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, Renaissance and Baroque paintings by masters like El Greco, Rembrandt, Velázquez and Raphael, and a gorgeously restored Romanesque Hall. The Ludwig Museum mixes contemporary Hungarian and international art; there are works from Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein but also excellent Central and Eastern Europe sections.
The Dohány Street Synagogue, Europe’s largest, has been the main place of worship for Budapest’s Jewish community since 1859. The building encloses the Garden of Remembrance, a mass grave for Jews murdered in 1944-45, and the weeping willow Holocaust memorial. Attached to the synagogue is the Jewish Museum, featuring objects from the lives of Hungarian Jews and much more.
Budapest also offers a slew of smaller, quirkier, and more specialist venues. Photography fans won’t want to miss the Robert Capa Centre, which has changing exhibitions that focus on press and reportage p…